Sunday, September 26, 2010

I am beginning to fall in love with these. The first time round, I didn't place them properly so one looked higher than the other. I finally got it right! And these lashes are wonderful.

I realise that with thicker bands like these, it is best the your own lashes are curled and mascara applied before lash application. These lashes are lightweight, I don't feel them at all. I love the wispy longer ends. These cost USD$3.75, pretty good deal considering I get two pairs.

I bought this liner to pair with my new Chanel lippies. I asked Rina, the Chanel MA to choose a universal colour which I can pair with any lip colour, she chose Natural for me.

This lip liner comes with a sharperner and a brush on one end of the lip liner. It costs SGD$32.

Under sunlight

The liner is creamy and indeed natural looking. It glides well and stays put even though I have lip balm over my lips. I have a darker spot on my lip which it covers well. I really love the lip brush attached. It is tapered at the ends, just nice for getting to the tricky corners of my lips.

The pictures above are all the natural lip liners I own. Out of all, I reach for MAC's Subculture and now the Chanel lipliner most. I hate MAC's Cremestick because on my rather pigmented lips I don't see a thing. Although it looks great as an arm swatch, it doesn't glide smoothly onto lips. It is not creamy either so boo! I use Becca's Nougat which is a dual ended lip liner for nude lips.

The Chanel Natural lipliner is a great lipliner with a universal colour. If it is a splurge you want to make, this would be it. You are paying for the additional lip brush and sharperner for $32. But I don't see myself getting more because I don't need so many sharperners or brushes.

Monday, September 20, 2010

I'm not going to rehash my review on the Rouge Coco formulation. You can read them here instead.

I wanted a orangy/coral lipstick to try. I actually asked for Exotic from the Allure range but the SA at Chanel (not Rina this time, boo!) was quite clueless, in the end I left it up to her to select for me. I did tell her I wanted to try from both ranges. I was given two, one from the Allure and one from the Coco range. I would have preferred the Allure range because I happen to like the formulation better but Sari Dore stood out to me. It was a bright coral orange that looked better on my lips. I didn't get the name of the other lipstick though.

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Under bright sunlight

I have two similar lipsticks. Korres Mango Butter Lipstick in Coral which is a sheer and more coral version.

Korres Coral

I also have MAC Morange, a super creamy and opaque orange which sometimes can be quite unforgiving and clownish if you are not careful.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I knew I was in trouble the minute Rina from Chanel called me to tell me the lip liner that I wanted was in stock. Just what I need, another reason to go down and drool at the lipsticks! Well this is the result of that trip (hides my face).

I'm quite mad at myself for losing my Shu Uemura brow pencil. I bought one a few months back but had dropped it and broke the tip. I placed it in my makeup bag so that I could get it sharpened when I had the chance to go to the counter. Finally when I decided to go to Tangs I could not find it anywhere! I checked all my bags. It must have dropped out when I was applying my makeup outside. What a bummer!

So what did I get? From Chanel, the lip liner in Natural, Rouge Coco in Sari Dore and Rouge Allure Lacque in Santal and from Shu Uemura, the brow pencil in Seal Brown.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

I don't usually buy liquid eye liners. I have a love hate relationship with them. I have clumsy hands, so I have not sucessfully drawn a straight line on my eyes with them. I bought another MAC eye liner called the Penultimate eye liner in black (read about my review of it here), I wasn't crazy in love with it, in fact it is now left untouched.

But you know what, everyone needs a gold eye liner. It is just so festive and beautiful. The blogs reviews of the new superslick eye liners have been good. The swatches were enticing so I had to see for myself. It was honestly quite hard to limit myself to just one. But I think I can recreate the other colours with my existing pool of UD eye liners but Pure Show was literally stole the "Show" for me. It is nothing like the gold eye liners that I have right now. It is so sparkly!

Superslick eye liners come in a slim tube which you have to twist to uncap.

I love the applicator! It is a stiff tapered stick I think, not a brush, so it ensures that you have control when you are drawing your line. Some liquid liner brushes are just to soft and long and that makes it so hard to draw a straight line.

MAC Superslick eye liner in Pure Show

Urban Decay liners in Eldorado, Honey and Korres liner in Gold

The gold colour is bright and metallic looking. So unlike the gold liners I own. See the sparkles! It applies wet and thus have that full on colour. Gorgeous. It does take more time to dry so don't apply this in a hurry. On the safe side, wait for a full 30 seconds before blinking. Many reviewers have mentioned that they are waterproof and smudgeproof, I haven't put it through the water test so I can't comment. By the way it costs about $35 if I'm not mistaken.

You can check out the rest of the swatches over here at Sarah's blog. She has really wonderful and enticing swatches.

I know I shouldn't be lusting for yet another black eye liner but I'm serious contemplating on Marked for Glamour (black version). All my cream/gel eye liners aren't as soft and creamy as before. So they aren't applying as smoothly. I'm wondering whether Marked for Glamour would do the job.

Ratings: 4+ lipsticks

Tip: You know the trouble with gold eye liners is that they never look good applied on their own. I asked a MAC MA how best to show off Pure Show. She suggested applying Pure Show over a regular black eye liner. That way the gold eye liner will stand out. I tried it and I do agree that is the best way.

I told Rina the MA from Chanel than I sometimes suffer from peeling lips after a day of wearing lipstick. If my lipstick or gloss isn't moisturising enough, they look really awful when I reapply. I have been using my trusty Rosebud Lip Salve to prep my lips for ages. It does a great job keeping my lips soft and supple but if I were to apply lip gloss or lipstick over it, my lip product tends to slide and slip all over the place. It also looks kinda oily. My lip products doesn't stay long at all either. So to counter that problem, I wiped off my lip balm before applying lip products. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of applying a lip balm before lip makeup?

So while Rina was trying on the different Chanel lipsticks on me, she applied small amounts of the Hydramax lip balm on me to show me how my lipstick would look over it. I was pleasantly surprised that Rina offered to apply the different lipsticks on me, most SA would just let me swatch them on my hands and leave it as that. I was worried that after putting on and taking off the different lip colours, my lips would redden and not be as smooth. In between applications, she applied Hydramax. It felt comfortable without interferring with the lipstick so I decided to buy a bottle to try out for myself.

It is an expensive splurge. It cost me SGD$55. I'm definitely making sure this lasts a long time for me.

I was given a small spatula which I scoop out a very small amount of product. I use a lip brush to smooth it over my lips before applying my lipstick. I still use my Rosebud lip salve at home and before I go to bed. I'm going to scoop some in a plastic container and bring it along in my makeup pouch for touch ups.

I have been using it everyday just before I apply my lipstick. I really like how it hydrates my lips. At the end of the day, my lips are still supple and soft. My lipstick doesn't slide and slip like before either. I'm sure that is a cheaper alternative out there. But if you are looking to pamper yourself, Hydramax is a great lip balm to use.

Ratings: 3+ lipsticks

Something else I learned from Rina, you should always remove your lipstick with a makeup remover of some sorts to prevent lip pigmentation. I tend to get lazy at times. I put on lip products when I go out all the time, even if it is to the grocery store. I put on lip products when I'm going home from the gym. When I come back home, I forget to remove it. Big no no. If you do this long enough, your lips will have pigmentation. So remember to remove your lip products!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

I bought this some time back and have been dying to use them. Unfortunately I tried to wear this out a couple of nights ago without practicing. Needless to say I almost ruined my eye makeup and had to settle for a set of Ardell's which were so much easier to put on.

I paid SGD$41 for these so damnit I am going to make them work! I picked a Saturday where I had all the time in the world to experiment with it and this is what I came up with.

These lashes have a thicker band which is quite stiff and hard to work with as compared to the invisible bands that Ardell has. I took hold of the ends of the lashes and waved it up and down to soften up the band. It was more difficult to place them on correctly. I also realised that even after shortening the lashes I still had to trim them some more to make them more comfortable to wear. They also felt heavier and less comfortable to wear than Ardell's. But I must say I really love how dramatic they look. Definitely for nights out only.

All in all I find Shu lashes more difficult to wear but they are worth making the effort because you can't get lashes like these at the drugstores. If you buy Shu lashes, you can go down to any of their counters at anytime, the friendly MAs there will help you to put them on at no extra charge. I think it would also be a great opportunity to learn some tips from them.